dry creek bed for drainage

lisa__in_maAugust 8, 2012

Hello

Need some drainage assistance here. please : )

I'm in Massachusetts and the roof of my 1854 house has an amazingly low pitch to it (rubber roofed now) that used to have internal gutters, But those gutters were removed and covered over, and any exterior gutters would come off say contractors with all the snow.

So I'm wondering if anyone has used a dry creek bed for drainage away from the house from roof run-off like a ground gutter. Unfortunately due to the way the house is situated, just sloping away from the house hasn't worked as when it rains heavily and the soil is saturated, water comes in through the fieldstone to flood the cellar.

So hoping maybe a dry creek bed almost directly under the drip line and flowing away from the house to the backyard, might be an idea.

A 158 y.o. field stone foundation isn't giving you much protection from ground water or surface water. You need to get the run-off away from the walls, but I don't think a 'dry creek' is the way to go.
Good quality gutters, properly installed, should not 'come off with all of the snow'. Ice can be a problem, but that can be addressed with electric gutter heaters.
JMHO

The roof pitch is 1:3 (why I went with the rubber roof) and it's the north side of the house so no sun whatsoever. We often get over well over100 in. of snow (why someone built this house here is beyond me except they were expecting to freeze themselves in the winter.) and there is a very slow melt/build up for all the snow we get. For just rain, gutters seem to be the answer, but in winter would you suggest anything in addition to Electric gutter heaters? It's the slow build up of the ice/snow (dams) load that that the contractors say would take them down.